RAHB Election 2014

RAHB election – what’s new this year?

Four additions or changes have been made to the RAHB election process to make it easier for you to more knowledgeably exercise your vote for 2015 Directors.

Meet the Candidates ReceptionOn Friday, November 14, RAHB will be holding its first-ever Meet the Candidates reception. You will have the opportunity to meet and talk informally with the candidates, ask your questions about their vision for your association and then decide which candidates you think are best suited to serve the interests of the association and its members.

The reception will be held in the McCullough Rooms (lower level) at the RAHB office, from 3 to 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Early access to Candidates’ videos
Links to candidates’ videos will be sent out with the Election package on November 13, so you can view the videos at your leisure. It might be a good idea to watch the videos before attending the Meet the Candidates reception on November 14 so you can have your questions ready for the candidates.

Extended hours for electronic votingYou can vote for your candidates online at any time on November 18, 19 or 20. The restriction to voting only during business hours was removed from the Bylaw.

New videoRAHB has produced a video explaining the new election process. Watch for the link to the video in your election package, or view the video at www.rahb.ca/elections/.

______________________________________________

RAHB Election Schedule

The RAHB Annual Election Meeting is coming up at the end of the month, and there are important events and dates leading up to the election:

Thursday, November 13
The slate of Candidates (including the Nomination Committee’s recommended slate) will be sent to all members

Bylaw change recommended

RAHB members will be asked at the Annual Election Meeting to approve a motion to remove the Rules and Regulations from the RAHB Bylaws.

While including the Rules and Regulations with the Bylaws was once a common practice for real estate associations, better understanding of the purpose of Bylaws and current circumstances make it better practice to remove them from the Bylaw.

What’s changed?Good governance suggests that a Bylaw exists to define the role of the association, the relationship between the association and its members, and the rights and responsibilities of members and the association. How a member should conduct his or her business in relation to other members – that is, the MLS® Rules and Regulations – has no place in the Bylaws.

Last year, RAHB’s Governance Committee took first steps toward streamlining the Bylaw by better recognizing the roles of committees and task forces. The result was that Operational Committees – those committees reporting to the CEO and responsible for providing input to the CEO on operational matters – and their mandates were removed from the Bylaw and placed into a policy manual, to afford them the flexibility required by a dynamic association.

The next step is to remove the MLS® Rules and Regulations and to make other small changes to the Bylaw to reflect their removal.

The intent of removing them is not to make the Rules and Regulations more flexible; it is simply to make it a separate document, as it should be.

The current circumstance that has prompted the removal of the Rules and Regs from the Bylaw at this particular point in time is that RAHB is embarking on a new venture with seven other REALTORS® associations to create a large, shared regional MLS® system. It has been agreed among the associations that, in order to make the system work, all associations must subscribe to the same rules so that every member of every association is playing by the same rules.

Every association that is part of the regional MLS® system is being encouraged to remove their MLS® Rules and Regulations from their Bylaws. If they do not, and a conflict arises between the two sets of MLS® rules, which prevails? It may eventually be a requirement that all associations participating in the shared system remove their Rules and Regulations from their Bylaw and subscribe solely to the shared system’s Rules.

Would this mean that members no longer have a say in changes to the Rules? No. It is anticipated that whenever a Rule change is contemplated by the eight associations, each would be able to present the changes to their memberships for feedback, and then the associations’ representatives to the shared system’s governing body would vote on their members’ behalf. After that – majority prevails, in the same way majority would prevail at a RAHB membership meeting.

______________________________________________
Learn more about the proposal to remove the Rules and Regulations from the RAHB Bylaw in the Election Meeting information package being sent to each member on November 13, and at the Annual Election Meeting on Thursday, November 27, when the motion will be presented.

RAHB Annual Election Meeting

Watch for your election package coming to you by email on Thursday, November 13. The package will include: